‘Twilight’ tops Thanksgiving B.O.

After two days of Thanksgiving holiday moviegoing, it seems newcomer “Rise of the Guardians” won’t have to loosen its belt, as the toon collected a less-than-filling $8.6 million. “Twilight” finale, “Breaking Dawn — Part 2,” easily will top the five-day holiday fray, with a projected $60 million-plus domestic take.

“Rise of the Guardians,” the last DreamWorks Animation film to go through Paramount, looks to collect in five days (high $20 millions) what most observers anticipated the film would gross in three. The film earned $4.9 million on Wednesday, then fell nearly 25% Thanksgiving day, with $3.7 million.

By comparison, Fox’s 3D epic “Life of Pi” debuted Wednesday with $3.7 million. Pic grew 22% the following day — an usual Thanksgiving bump, generally speaking — grossing $4.5 million. “Pi” should eclipse “Guardians” through Sunday (based on Thursday’s uptick), which would put the Fox film well above its pre-weekend tracking estimates in the high-teens. Neither film, however, is expected to outpace Disney-DreamWorks’ “Lincoln,” which grossed $9.1 million Wednesday-Thursday, for a Stateside cume of $37.2 million.

The weekend’s third wide release, FilmDistrict’s “Red Dawn” remake, earned $7.4 million in its first two days, which should translate to roughly $22 million in five.

“Twilight” is playing just a touch above its predecessor, having earned $20.9 million over the last two days vs. $20.1 million for “Breaking Dawn — Part 1″ this time last year. “Part 2″ has cumed $183.8 million domestically through Thursday.

Sony-MGM’s James Bond holdover “Skyfall” should nab second place this weekend; pic earned $7.7 million Thursday, bringing its North American cume to $185.7 million.